Equitable Peer Review

Providing reviewers with training can be another effective way to the reduce the potential for bias in peer review, but many editorial teams may have neither the time nor the resources to provide adequate training to all of their peer reviewers. Nevertheless, providing reviewers with clear rubrics, guidelines, and expectations along with outside resources can go a long way toward ensuring helpful, objective reviews. Rubrics should, of course, be tailored to the needs of your journal and of your discipline, but here are two sample peer reviewer rubrics, one for humanities articles and one for articles in the sciences:

• IUJUR Humanities Rubric
• IUJUR Sciences Rubric

In addition, there are several freely available training resources for preparing peer reviewers:

• Sense about Science created a helpful guide to peer review geared toward early career researchers: Peer Review: the nuts and bolts - Sense about Science

Publons/Clarivate offers free, self-directed courses in peer review, including an introduction to peer review and courses designed specifically for reviewers in the humanities or in the sciences:

• An Introduction to Peer Review
• Reviewing in the Sciences
• Reviewing in the Humanities